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Re: A ? For Cleo Hogan or any other trap out expert.

I'am by no means an expert but I am a student of the Cleo hogan process. If your not counting drive time, your biggest time consumer will be keeping fresh eggs in the box and removing bees. If you are going to remove the queen, That will be determined how quickly she moves to the box

Re: A ? For Cleo Hogan or any other trap out expert.

I don't know how much this helps. We have started going to every cut/trap out fully prepared to either trap or remove. twice last year in tree trap outs we found there to be multiple entrances and exits we muddied in all but the main bottom and top holes set a bait hive ten feet away with fresh brood and scented the branches above lightly with lemmongrass oil. took one hour of light to med.smoke applied to bottom hole bees kept coming out in good numbers flying around and around the bait hive and poof all once they where in a full tight swarm in a branch 15 feet above the bait and none in the tree cavity areas. We closed of remaining holes and shook swarm on to bait hive. As our timing was right and in came the night, all the bees accepted their new home with delight. saved a three hour return trip the next day. I do charge 150$ for removals that gets three hours of whatever it takes work after that they know it's $50 an hour. no charge for travel within reason. But I will usually cut the price a bit if the work is just waiting around time. Telling them upfront what it is potentially going to cost helps ease the pain of payment.

Re: A ? For Cleo Hogan or any other trap out expert.

My-smokepole..... Don't consider myself an expert. Just loved trapping bees for several years. Don't do many now. Gas costs too much, no bee trees close.

Time is minimal. Hour to set it up. Thirty minutes each trip to harvest bees and your frames. A big colony will yield 3-6 starts, Or 2-3 really big starts. I would plan for at least 2-3 trips to make sure all entrances/exits are sealed. Then, introduce unsealed brood, then normally 24-48 hours remove the first 3-10 pounds of bees. Reset trap and see how many bees you get in 24-36 hours. If you get three pounds you know it is a good colony and you can remove or leave and get more. Keep removing 3-5 pound increments until you are not getting bees. Leave for another week to get stragglers.

If a trap is more than 10 miles away, and unless you just want the experience in trapping, it is hard to justify the expense. If you are getting paid, that is another thing. I think you can expect to make at least 5-10 trips for final trapout. You can expect 4 to 6 weeks to complete.

Hope this answers your question.

If you have specific questions, Just let me know. Happy to help you, (or anyone else).

Re: A ? For Cleo Hogan or any other trap out expert.

$350 to $450, a lot of trips (city prices).

Last year happened to have a number of small after-swarms I collected and they worked great for trap out hives.

Like Wimpy says make sure you do that 1st exchange 24 - 48 hours after set up. I made the mistake of leaving one a week before the 1st swap out one time and like to kill myself getting it down from the tree, it got so loaded with honey and bees.